As Stark and Steve walked into the insane asylum, the entire corridor was pitch black. Only one door was open, and the light leaking from it projected onto the opposite wall, creating an image in green.
The two men slowed their pace, gradually approaching. Upon reaching the door, Steve ventured a look inside first. The ward was small, easily seen in full, and yet, there were no people, or rather, what was there was not people, but a God with a skull falcon head.
Khonsu sat on the edge of the bed, holding a wooden rod. Stark recognized him and entered, asking angrily, "Khonsu??? What are you doing here?! You controlled Shiller! Where is he now?!"
Upon seeing Stark and Steve enter, Khonsu revealed an extremely strange expression. Stark felt as if he might have misunderstood because he seemed to see an expression of grievance on the face of a bird with a skull for a head.
But soon, Khonsu's actions informed Stark that this was not a misperception. Khonsu sighed deeply, and the sigh bore a multitude of complex emotions—grievance, worry, and deep regret.
The first thing Steve focused on as he walked inside wasn't the strangely looking Khonsu, but the wooden rod in his hand that looked rather like a clothes pole. Apart from this rod, various rings and glowing beads were scattered across the floor. Steve inspected the room, unable to understand what had happened. He could only ask:
"Uh, hello, Mr. Hawk? Are you a hawk? Why are you here? What happened? Have you seen Shiller?"
Steve then heard Khonsu sigh again, placing the bare wooden rod aside, raising his head to look around the ward before speaking:
"You must be friends of Shiller, right? Since you've managed to find this place, you must have some understanding of the Dreamworld."
"Yes, indeed, we first arrived here significantly earlier than you did." Stark squinted his eyes, saying, "But we've never been to this room before. Which personality of Shiller lives here?"
Khonsu sighed deeply again before speaking slowly:
"The one who fights the best."
Then, with a rather somber tone, he began to recount to Stark and Steve how he'd crossed paths with Shiller and ended up here. After he finished, he added:
"As one of Thebes Triune, I do not reside in the celestial realm. The events that led to this go back to a previous civil war."
"The relationships among the Egyptian gods are frequently complex. The most intense conflicts were between the Natural Deities and Animal Gods. When the war started, I wasn't in the celestial realm. However, after the war ended, I was told that I couldn't return to my former home."
"There were many gods like me, including the well-known Anubis in your human world. His situation was much like mine. He wasn't purely an Animal God, but because he had an animal's appearance, he was banished."
"Why would the Animal Gods and Natural Deities quarrel in the first place?" Steve asked with confusion. "They all belong to the same deity system. Their relationships should be close, like in Asgard."
Khonsu shook his skull falcon's head, then said, "Animal Gods are more similar to your human race. They have emotions, they need to survive, they need to fight. But the Natural Deities, who were born from and symbolize the essence of nature itself, are more like natural phenomena. They're cold, arrogant, and unpredictable."
"I was once indignant at their actions. When I mentioned this story to Shiller, he said that he had a plan to help the Animal Gods regain the celestial realm…"
"At first, I wasn't interested, because I know that most Animal Gods, myself included, do not wish to start a war. But gradually, I was swayed. I'd be willing to contribute some strength if it meant an opportunity to avenge those arrogant Natural Deities…"
"So he went to challenge those Natural Deities alone?" Stark asked with wide eyes. Then he made the sign of the cross over his chest and said, "God bless them."
"Solo challenge?" Khonsu stroked his bird's bill with his hand; his jawbones clicked together. Stark saw a complicated expression in his face again, then he heard Khonsu say, "The term 'solo challenge'... isn't quite accurate..."
"Wait, if you didn't control him, then why did he seem so..." Steve paused, evidently remembering Shiller's cool demeanor during their battles, especially the image of Baron Zemo's throat being pierced by Shiller's sword, blood spraying everywhere.
Khonsu sighed deeply again. He picked up the wooden rod and erected it in front of him. Stark and Steve both turned their attention to the rod. Khonsu said with some sadness: "This is my scepter."
"Hmm... It's very rustic, there's a certain essence of primitive beauty," Steve mused after a moment.
"But it wasn't always like this."
Upon hearing what Khonsu had said, Stark looked at the disassembled parts scattered on the floor, and he began to show a strange expression. He kept pursing his lips while seemingly holding back laughter. Steve also appeared to realize something. But before they could poke fun, Khonsu said:
"I represent the ever-changing aspects of the moon, hence, I tend to choose followers with complex, chaotic souls as proxies. When Shiller found me, I'd never seen such a chaotic soul. Therefore, I chose him…"
"In the past, when I bestowed powers on the Moon Knights, I would strengthen the most chaotic part of their souls. As a result…"
Khonsu's large bird beak clicked again. Stark and Steve recalled their previous encounters with the extraordinary Shiller. Then they both turned sympathetic gazes toward Khonsu.
Stark began to stroll around the ward, while Steve said, "Alright then, can you bring us to him? We need to make sure he's still alive..."
Khonsu also stood up, holding his now bald scepter, while Stark said, "Wait a minute, I want to investigate here."
He rummaged through the side cabinet as he said to Steve, "Don't forget what we saw before, Shiller's mental problem might be serious, it can't be ignored, we need to collect more clues..."
With a clang, an old cabinet door was torn open by Stark. The moment the door opened, a pile of stuff clattered to the ground.
Stark stared at the pile of objects, all of which were strange — sharp dinner plate edges, old-fashioned wood pencils, grotesquely twisted spoons, wires, ropes, and even a couple of plastic toy ducks.
And all these objects were stained with blood.
Steve crouched down and used a finger to sift through those objects. He said hesitantly, "I remember you said before, every object in a dream could represent a memory."
"The pool of blood under the carpet represents a horrific crime scene. So, all these objects here..."
As Steve said this, both he and Stark fell silent. Stark lowered his head and said, "I've read in psychology books that there's a type of person, called 'genius psychopath' in this world.
Steve looked at him, and Stark continued to stare at the pile of objects, saying, "It also has a more widely known term, called 'high-functioning sociopath.'"
"If I'm not guessing wrong, every object here represents a murder he once committed." Steve picked up one of the pencils and studied the direction of the bloodstain, saying, "Like this way..."
He held the pencil in the same manner as one would hold a knife, then lifted his head and pressed the pencil against his neck, saying, "...stabbing it in, pulling it out would leave this kind of bloodstain, and if you want to kill, it's best to directly stab into the windpipe..."
"And this..." Steve picked up a piece of what seemed to be a broken dinner plate. It was triangular, one corner being a regular round edge of a dinner plate, and the other two corners extremely sharp and pointed.
Steve held the rounded corner and said, "If it were me, I would directly hold it like this, and I could easily kill a person. But if my strength isn't enough, I can tie a handle to it, like this pencil."
As he spoke, he completely sifted through the pile of objects, pointing out each item, saying,
"It's apparent that he's constantly exploring methods of murder. Maybe at first, his strength and skills weren't enough, so he chose the most effortless and lethal method — a wire. Just find the right point of force, strangle from behind, the target would hardly escape."
"After that, he began to use sharp objects, metal with sharp cut edges. There's no need for much force to cause serious harm..."
"And then after that..." Steve threw the object in his hand away, stood up, lowered his gaze, looked at the ground, and said, "Maybe you're right, he indeed is a genius killer. It took him just a few murders to become a professional hitman, and even more incredibly..."
Stark reached out to pick out some objects that didn't look like weapons from the pile, like those two rubber toy ducks, half a picture frame, a small box that looked like it was for jewelry, and many other weird objects.
"He started to grow unsatisfied with just his hands. He started to manipulate the environment and objects to cause accidents..." Stark followed up on Steve's words, "Maybe he's exploring the method of constructing the perfect murder. Perhaps, he has also gone down the criminal road highlighted in those psychopathology books..."
"No..." Steve, however, disagreed with him, saying, "But from the looks of it now, Shiller's state doesn't seem like the criminal you're describing, and if he has become a criminal, that third, fourth or even the hundreds of personalities couldn't possibly have split one by one, could they?"
"It would be very difficult to completely analyze a person's character and inner world, let alone a person like Shiller who has an overly rich inner world." Stark looked around the room, "All these are just our speculations based on available clues, and we're still in a dream."
"In any case, we must first find Shiller and ask him straight what he is up to."
Stark and Steve looked at Khonsu at the same time. Before they had a chance to ask, Khonsu spoke himself, "When he told me about this plan, he didn't tell me everything, but he kept asking me about the details in the Egyptian Pantheon where a god could resurrect followers..."
Stark caught on to a particular word in Khonsu's speech. He asked, "Resurrect? Can you resurrect people?"
Khonsu sighed and said, "In a way, yes, we'll have to start from the judgment the believers receive after death..."
"The key... the key is in the judgment that believers receive after death!" Osiris, hanging breathless from a coconut tree, said.
He looked down at the various incarnations of Shiller surrounding him and said despairingly,
"Only through judgment can there be resurrection! Or rather, if they pass the judgment, they will not be accepted by death..."